Winora Hydraulic Rim Brakes

skinthegoat

Driven by the fact that, in my eighties, all the hills around my neighbourhood have got so much steeper, I recently lashed out and bought a 2018 Winora Sinus electric bike. This machine has a Shimano Nexus 7-speed hub gear which incorporates a back-pedal brake. It also has front and rear hydraulic rim brakes which to me feel somewhat soft and spongy. Does anyone know how to bleed and top these up, as I can't for the life of figure out see how it might be done?

Mefistofelino

I would suspect that the hydraulic rim brakes are actually made by Magura. If that's the case, then the Magura website has maintenance videos like this

https://youtu.be/HZ3GMv11OKA?feature=shared

skinthegoat

Hi Mefisto,

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you, I've been away from my screen for a while. Thank you very much for your response, and the brakes are indeed Magura. A couple of questions remain, mainly because I've never before had hydraulic brakes. Firstly, are all hydraulic fluids the same? If not, can I mix any new fluid with what's already in the system and which is unknown to me? And secondly, do you know where in Dublin or on-line I might find the special equipment (syringes, fluid, &c.) required?

Mefistofelino

There are two different types of hydraulic fluid and they are not mixable or interchangeable. The Magura fluid is a mineral oil but I don't know if you can use any mineral oil based brake fluid eg Shimano or if you have to stick with their proprietary "Royal Blood" fluid. You may have to Google for sources in Dublin.

For bleed kits, Decathlon do one but make sure it's the mineral oil kit.

skinthegoat

Thanks a million Mefisto, you’ve been a tremendous help to me. In fact, based on the stuff you sent me I’ve been able to adjust the brakes to a satisfactory level so that the immediate pressure is off - I had been kind of relying on the hub brake, then thought about where I’d be if the chain came off! But I’ve always done my own maintenance and will invest in what’s needed to do a bleed & refill later. Again, I can’t thank you enough for you help.
Alan O’Brien

Dr_Colossus

I never knew there were hydraulic rim brakes. In terms of a bleed kit, I bought this last year and find it good, has everything you need for disc brakes at least including the little 7mm spanner and very reasonable. Spend a bit of time looking at different kits from different stores and that looked the best value for money, it was £11.88 when I bought in Jan 2023

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0B61578GP/ref%3Dppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Also got this little tub of mineral oil for £5.65, more than you'll need. I did a full bleed of front and back and still have about half the tub left. Have read some reports of people using baby oil when they didn't have specific mineral oil to hand but you might as well get the proper stuff.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00AQYSRQY/ref%3Dppx_yo_dt_b_asin_image_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

skinthegoat

Thanks Doc, I’ll check that out. I used to get a lot of stuff from UK but gave up on them post-Brexit and changed to Amazon.de. Did you have any trouble with delivery/taxes?

68 lost souls

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121990806#Comment_121990806

Amazon UK handle all the taxes and fees generally now. The price that you see at checkout is the price that you will pay including and extra charges. The odd time I come across something that says it wont ship to Ireland but most of the time its fine. Sometimes the price changes between putting it in the basket and going to checkout and that is adjusting the taxes and charges.

CramCycle

Dosing syringes for cattle are also handy and cheap if you live near a co-op or a Vet.

skinthegoat

Thanks everybody for your help. I've learnt a lot these last few days and think I know where I'm going with this now. Great forum!

Large bottle small glass

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121992310#Comment_121992310

I hope I'm still cycling and learning new stuff in my 80's!

skinthegoat

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121992655#Comment_121992655

More people die in their 70s than in any other decade; the trick is to get through them as quickly as possible. 😎

ednwireland

my 30 year old mtb has magura hydraulic rim brakes. never had to bleed them. although that bike is retired now ,threads on bb shell worn out.